Witnessing the Pain Body & What It Can Teach Us

Sometimes there's awareness there and there's the pain body there. And you've chosen awareness. And not that the pain body goes away, but then you get to almost like witness your pain body. So you're not in a reaction mode. You can feel the energy of the pain body, but you witness it. Maybe some words may come out and you witness that and you might go, oh my goodness, why did I say that? But you remain present in that awareness because sometimes this pain body has something to teach us. So don't be in a hurry into a rush to think that and desire that you have no more pain body. Because to tell you the truth, without this pain body, I would not be sitting up here today. And same with Eckhart, without that pain body that he experienced, he would not be here today teaching. Now it seldom happens with people to be free of the pain body and free of the ego virtually overnight like it happened with Eckhart. And if some of you are wanting that, but I want that, I want it gone and I want it gone now and never to come back. You are in your mind. That is a thought. It can be gone right now. If you choose the present moment and choose the unconditioned self could be gone right now. And only the mind will come in and bring in time and start thinking, oh, but will it be gone forever? This moment is forever. There's only ever this moment. Time, and it's useful is a concept. And we all agree what time it is, what time it is here in Greece, what time it is in Germany, what time it is in Canada, those are all agreements that we have made and we forget that it is just a concept. There is no time. But this time as a concept is useful because it gets us, say for example, here. Otherwise if we didn't have this concept of time, it may take us a million years for all of us to get here and be with each other. So it just, it's useful. Concepts are useful, but we forget that it's just a concept. Just as we say, we are in Greece. Yes, that's a concept. We are in Greece. But does Greece really exist? Does Canada exist? Does the USA exist? No, it's just a concept and yet we believe in this concept that we are willing to fight for that concept. We are willing to kill to keep that concept alive. And yet it doesn't exist. So if no time exists, your name doesn't even exist, your gender doesn't even exist, the countries don't exist. What is there? Look within. It's that sense of Self, the self with a capital S. That stillness, the essence of who we are, the nothingness, the dao that cannot be named. Your God, essence, consciousness, your Buddha, nature. So all these are names that point to the formless dimension. I've had many people experience that formless dimension, and then they'll experience a thought. Now what? What's next? It's that momentum of the mind that will keep going and keep alive, keep itself alive for a while. And not that the mind we don't know. It's not that the mind, we want it to go away. We just don't want that mind to be controlling us with those thoughts. And they're habitual thoughts, but it's that nothingness, that no thingness to be comfortable with, that emptiness. So I like the Buddha's teaching where it you couldn't really hang on to anything. How can you hang on to emptiness? It's formless to be comfortable with that at first, when that formless dimension arises in you and you're aware of feels a little bit like getting into an elevator and you're alone and it's okay being alone. And then somebody enters and then it's that awkward feel. So become comfortable with it. Unknown, no thought is it. No emotion is it. No experience that you have, is it. I used to travel to India quite a bit to go meditate in the caves and visit spiritual teachers in India. And I remember being in this temple and suddenly I was just had this magnificent experience. Oh my gosh. I saw the sky open up and I saw angels and I heard music where I don't even know where it was coming from, but it wasn't coming from the earthly realm. And it was just like, oh my God. Wow, this is incredible. It's like I saw God. And that evening I went to go visit a spiritual teacher and I told him of my experience and he says to me, that's not it. I go, no, no, no, no, no, you didn't hear it. Or maybe you didn't hear me. I saw angels, I saw God, I heard music, the sky opened up, that's not it. And this went back and forth, me repeating myself, really believing that I saw angels, I saw God, etc. And him just saying, that's not it. And his wife who was there said, I'm going to bed. And so I don't know, maybe 20 minutes went by going back and forth, just, he would just repeat the same thing. That's not it, that's not it. And me really determined to think, no, no, no, no, I experienced it. I saw it. That's not it. And then suddenly, after his the last time of saying that's not it, I understood. I didn't have to repeat anymore. That's why it was the last time I went, oh, my God, you're right. No experience is it. We've all perhaps had that wonderful, profound meditation where you're sitting there and you just like, wow, you finish the meditation and you go, oh, my God, that was great. Wow, that was incredible. And then the next day, you come to sit in your sitting meditation, and hidden behind in the background in your mind is that you want the same experience, and you're just sitting there trying to get that same experience. Of course, that experience will never happen again. And then you finish that meditation, you go, damn it, why didn't I have that same experience? You will never have the same experience. If you want the same experience. You are holding on to the past, and you will never experience this moment again, which may or may not be more profound than the last experience. Sam.